Excerpts from a diary, 1834-1865, and memoir of early life, written by Jesse Cox (1793-1879), a Primitive Baptist minister and resident of Williamson County, Tennessee. He describes the hardships of life as an itinerant preacher, some religious...
Excerpts from the diary of William Luther Bigelow Lawrence. He details joining the Nashville Guards, the scarcity of provisions, and the surrender of Nashville. He proclaims the trampling of private rights by Federal soldiers, the fleeing of his...
The "Old Wristbreaker," model 1840 heavy cavalry saber used during the Mexican War through 1867. The term "heavy" was used after 1857 when the light saber was adopted. Thousands of the heavy wooden-gripped sabers were used during the Civil War. The...
Steamboats; Ox teams; Laborers; Rivers; Farming; Bodies of water
A man with a hat stands next to a team of oxen. A river and a steamboat can be seen in the background. The man is standing near some wooden structures, one of which may be a barn. The name of the steamboat is the "City of Memphis."
Excerpts from a small handwritten diary written by Nannie Haskins, a young girl of Clarksville, Tennessee. Provides an insight into the day to day activities of an observant young girl. Haskins was strongly in support of the Confederacy and loathed...
Portrait photographs; People; Men; Military personnel; Soldiers; Uniforms; Military uniforms; Firearms
Benjamin Franklin Ammons (at right, wearing trews) and Raiford Franklin Ammons (at left) of the 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery, C.S.A., seated in uniform holding their weapons. Portrait includes letter with narrative.
Tintype of Benjamin Franklin Ammons (on right) and Raiford Franklin Ammons (on left) of the 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery, CSA, seated in uniform holding their weapons.
Memorial for Corporal Roby Hendrix who was killed in World War I. The image features a painting of advancing troops, light and heavy artillery, tanks, naval personnel, ships, and airplanes around a central image of a battered pillar and a poem. It...
African-American man caries a heavy cloth bag of unidentified goods, possibly peanuts, on his back. Behind him another man carries the same. Rows of cloth bags and barrels of goods are pictured.
Two-page letter from Elisha W. Harris to his son George Carroll Harris of Nashville. He writes from his plantation Waco Place in Louisiana of the war being upon them with bloody consequence. He has abandoned his efforts to cling to the union and...
Two-page letter from J. W. Maybin of Vicksburg, Mississippi, to John S. Brien. The letter requests legal advice from John S. Brien, "one of the first legal minds in the United States," regarding his legal options after having seen much of his...
Letter from Thomas Crutchfield Jr. to James R. Hood. Crutchfield makes an effort to prove his loyalty to the Union by recounting his opposition to secession, his informing the Federals of troop movements, his supplying of the Union army with...
Letter from Joseph Gerald Branch in Davis Lake Plantation, Arkansas, to his wife, Mary, in Maury County, Tennessee. He is concerned that his letters are not reaching her, and he observes, "What is property or anything else compared to one's...
Correspondence; Fathers; Mothers; Campaigns & battles; Civil Wars; War
Letter from Mary Guthrie Latta to her husband, Samuel R. Latta, dated August 19, 1861. Although she has hoped that Samuel Latta's unit would be ordered into retreat in Tennessee, they have instead been ordered to New Madrid, Missouri.
Correspondence; Fathers; Children; Families; Mothers; Civil Wars; War
Correspondence from Mary Guthrie Latta to her husband, Samiel R. Latta. In this four-page letter, she expresses concern for the safety of her husband. She states that she is "beginning to feel the terrible realities of war in earnest now."
Four-page letter from Beck Wallace to her cousin, Samuel R. Latta, of the 13th Tennessee Infantry, conveys her sorrow at his leaving home to fight for the Confederacy. She is deeply concerned for his wife and children. Beck, a teacher in Fayette...
Letter from Robert Rutledge to his father, G. R. Rutledge, explaining the strategic value of East Tennessee and the likelihood of a Union invasion. He implores his father to leave Cleveland, Tennessee, and flee south to Georgia before such a raid...
Three-page letter describes a plane crash on Vung Chua that killed eight South Korean officers. (The plane, still visible on the mountain, and a nearby monument are pictured in Ammons's photos.) No one knows why the plane was so far from the Qui...
Three-page letter written from Dong Tam, final headquarters base camp of the 9th Infantry Division. Ammons describes an air assault in which the platoon was pinned down in knee-deep water under heavy fire by the Viet-Cong. He writes, "The leeches...
